New shop at Rose Hill

[marplex]

The staff in Premier have informed me that Mel is very angry that cars have to cross his land to park outside Premier.  Mel has told them they should have their own access to their car par and is threatening to block access which is indeed what he did on Christmas Day.  Remember that there is now a pelican crossing in fort of Premier and therefore it is not possible for them to open up direct access.
I am interested in what people think, is Mel right to block access to Premier?

[Cripes]

Where is Mel recently? I've not seen him for ages, they seem to have a lot of young people working there now that I haven't seen before.

[alan@marple]

Well last night, 31/12. I was going to the Spar at 9pm only to find it closed, so Mr Raja got my custom, because I had no choice

[Lisa Oldham]

And also take into account that marplex has made a total of 3 posts on the forum ... all in this topic!  Do you have any opinions on the other aspects of marple life discussed elsewhere?

Far too personal... a little bit smelly !!

[Rachael]

Mel the owner of the Spar has stooped to a new low.  He has blocked access to the car parking outside the Premier store next door by parking a van and a car between the properties.  A dirty trick and is clearly a sign that Mel has totally lost it!!

Is this comment really fair ? .... without knowing the reasons behind it ?  .... the staff at Premier are not angels, you only have to ask the parents of the children whom the staff have told them they cannot leave their push bikes outside the premier shop if they are going into the spar 

[marplex]

Mel the owner of the Spar has stooped to a new low.  He has blocked access to the car parking outside the Premier store next door by parking a van and a car between the properties.  A dirty trick and is clearly a sign that Mel has totally lost it!!

[Lisa Oldham]

Think this has lost its track.. weren't we discussing the issue of the NEW shop not what went on with the Spar before hand?
Presumably comments here have been noted by owners of new shop.. looks much more presentable.. still not shopping there though!

[My login is Henrietta]

Regarding the comments made by Mel the owner of the Spar he says that only decided to sell wine when the closure of Wine Rack was imminent!

The decision to do so was only taken when we knew that First Quench (the parent company for Wine Rack, Threshers and The Local) was heading for failure and the store closure was imminent.

Opinions are one thing and facts are another and the simple fact is that this is totally untrue.

The Spar opened on August 21st 2009 selling wine. It was not until October 29Th 2009 that is was announced that First Quench (Wine Rack) was going into administration.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/29/threshers-offlicence-administrators-appointed

The administrators were looking to sell the shops as going concerns and the fate of the Marple shop was not known until November 20Th 2009 as reported here 3 months after the Spar started selling wine and Mel claims the store closure was imminent!!

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/s/1183460_2000
_jobs_to_go_in_threshers_and_victoria_wine_shop_closures

A post on this web site on November 10Th confirms that the staff at Wine Rack still did not know their fate.

I went in this evening and the staff are very unsure about what will happen to the shop. I hope they don't close, the staff are friendly and knowledgable and there are good offers on. The SPAR next door is great for foods and papers etc, but they don't have the choice that Wine Rack have.

Quite frankly i cannot take any of his comments seriously with the above in mind.

Oh, come ON! A mini-market selling a few bottles of wine is NOT going to be responsible for the failure of a large, possibly nationwide, chain of alcohol shops.

[marveld]

Below is what I reported on 22nd Nov 2009. It supports the theory that Mel didn't know about Wine Rack's potential demise. I would like to add I had conversations with the manager of Wine Rack at the time and she informed me that the SPAR could happily take the kids since thefts had taken place. She also didn't view the SPAR selling budget wines as an issue. (I appreciate she may of been keeping her cards close to her chest).

http://www.marple-uk.com/smf/index.php?topic=2868.msg10554

At the time off applying, it was going to be a "Mace" store (now Spar) and not sell alcohol and compete with the Threshers shop (now named Wine Rack).

From the brief chats I had with the owner during the construction period, things evolved and there was no big plan to sell booze initially. There was a problem with the building work and they couldn't open when they wanted to. I think they needed stronger steels which led to the obvious decision make use of the extra floor space given by the steel and therefore to sell additional products. I'm sure it's all above board! Also, lets not forget that if Wine Rack does close it's not because of local competition, but because the parent company are in trouble.

[marplex]

Regarding the comments made by Mel the owner of the Spar he says that only decided to sell wine when the closure of Wine Rack was imminent!

The decision to do so was only taken when we knew that First Quench (the parent company for Wine Rack, Threshers and The Local) was heading for failure and the store closure was imminent.

Opinions are one thing and facts are another and the simple fact is that this is totally untrue.

The Spar opened on August 21st 2009 selling wine. It was not until October 29Th 2009 that is was announced that First Quench (Wine Rack) was going into administration.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/29/threshers-offlicence-administrators-appointed

The administrators were looking to sell the shops as going concerns and the fate of the Marple shop was not known until November 20Th 2009 as reported here 3 months after the Spar started selling wine and Mel claims the store closure was imminent!!

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/s/1183460_2000_jobs_to_go_in_threshers_and_victoria_wine_shop_closures

A post on this web site on November 10Th confirms that the staff at Wine Rack still did not know their fate.

I went in this evening and the staff are very unsure about what will happen to the shop. I hope they don't close, the staff are friendly and knowledgable and there are good offers on. The SPAR next door is great for foods and papers etc, but they don't have the choice that Wine Rack have.

Quite frankly i cannot take any of his comments seriously with the above in mind.

[marpleleaf]

Mel, the owner of the Spar, has responded to various debates with a positing on the Marple Leaf blog.

Here's a link.

http://themarpleleaf.blogspot.com/2010/09/exclusive-rose-hill-spar-owner-speaks.html

Feel free to add comments.

[chicken lady]

I will continue to use the SPAR too, if anything I have used it more since the Premier shop opened, in order to show my support. we have waited a long time for a shop in Rose Hill, the SPAR has been a godsend. As far as I can see, the Premier shop has increased litter and broken glass arounfd the area

[Lisa Oldham]

The wine shop didn't close down because of the neighbours! Its was a big company that went bust.  As far as I understand the wine shop continued to do well after the spar opened.

I understand the need for competition but what doesn't sit well with me is that Rosehill has 2 shops only.. one opened after much refurbishment and a year later another one opens next door selling exactly the same stuff. They have opened in direct competition with the Spar and so have opened in effect to put someone else out of business as i don't believe there is enough business everyday to keep both going.

On top of that the shop is tacky looking, out of keeping with the area, and ( confirmed this with my son) purposefully targetting school kids with fizzy drinks sweets etc promotions.

Someone mentioned he was wrong for limiting kids in the shop.. this is fairly standard practice.. especially in smaller shops with few staff.. your little angels might be exactly that.. but many are not.. they cant tell which ones are wonderful and which ones are not so they limit nbrs in the shops so they can keep an eye on them.. kids can be arsy little monsters especially teens they even make me grumpy!

SO regardless of how cheap the other shop can sell it i will continue to use the Spar and pay their prices... it might be ok to be competitive but it still strikes me as unfair and immoral to purposefully attempt to put someone out of business.

[Neil Smith]

As previously mentioned how he can complain about a shop opening next door selling the same goods as him when he opened selling wine and closing the wine shop next door. What goes around comes around!

Totally agree with you.

[Taurus]

I agree too. Went past it yesterday and it looks awful!